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scenario planning

Planting a Tree

I planted a tree in our back yard as part of an elementary school project. In the first year I made sure it had appropriate water, soil, and enough light. But I could barely see its early growth. Similarly, changes in higher education take time to ripple through the system.

Scenarios vs. Predictions

Relying only on predictions risks locking institutions into a false sense of security. Scenarios, on the other hand, open up conversations about resilience, trade-offs, and strategic agility.

The Wisdom of the Crowd in Enrolment Forecasting

The crowd sees signals that may not show up in your data systems—early student concerns, housing bottlenecks, employer demand shifts. Together, they create a more balanced view of the future.

Setting Enrolment Targets in Higher Education - Part 3: Where do Institutions get Stuck? Common Pitfalls in the Enrolment Target-Setting Process.

Many people I speak with feel they don’t know how to set a high quality target that is informed by data and research. Instead, they end up using what they used last year, with some difference over time. Most years, this method will work. But it carries some risks.

Setting Enrolment Targets in Higher Education - Part 2: How do Enrolment Targets Become Reality?

In the last blog, we discussed how targets are created.

Setting Enrollment Targets in Higher Education - Part 1: What Are Enrollment Targets—and How Do We Set Them?

Good targets follow the SMART principle: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-bound. But enrolment planning layers on additional complexity that SMART alone doesn’t capture.

Is Final Final Final Projection the right Final file?

Scenario planning allows your institution to better plan for what happens when things change, and it can be automated to update in near real time if you need. But it's very hard to keep track of all those scenarios unless you have a robust system that was designed for collaboration from day one.

Why We Built Plaid Forecast

“I’ve got a PhD in robotics engineering, and you’

Is Enrolment Forecasting Cooperative or Collaborative?

Institutional Researchers can unintentionally end up as gatekeepers to the collaborative enrolment forecasting model. They've built it by hand, using tools and skills available to them at the time, but the models aren't built for scale. Plaid Forecast is.

Forecasting Enrolment in New Programs

New programs introduce complexity to your enrolment forecast. By definition, they do not have past history to rely on for a prediction – what is an enrolment professional to do? Here’s how to handle them in stride: